


Answers and Revenge

by vsnow



Series: Grindeldore One-Shots [12]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Bonding over feelings of abandonment from the same person, Family, Fear of Death, Gellert's account of Ariana's death, M/M, Manipulation, Past Grindeldore relationship implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 14:46:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18758572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vsnow/pseuds/vsnow
Summary: Aurelius needs more than just his name. He needs to know *why* he was left on his own in such a place.Grindelwald has an answer for him...





	Answers and Revenge

Credence… no, Aurelius had been slowly discovering his power, and what he had learned was that it was strong. But he didn’t feel strong. He felt as though there was still a piece of him missing.

But that shouldn’t be.

Once he had found his name, his journey for self-discovery should have been over.

And he suspected the reason, it was the man he had heard about from Grindelwald… Albus Dumbledore.

Albus, his brother- It felt so strange to think such a thing as blood related family.

He had so many questions regarding the one who had caused him such loneliness and pain.

“Are you alright, my boy?” Grindelwald came to him, it was always as though the man knew his very thoughts.

“You knew my brother.” Aurelius said, for this he had learned.

But he wanted more.

Grindelwald stayed silent, allowing the younger man to gather his thoughts.

“What kind of man was my brother?”

“A liar.” Grindelwald said all too quickly, “He is faithful only to his own interests, he will use and abandon anyone regardless of what he has taken from them.”

“And you?”

“Well as you can see I have been entirely truthful with you, accommodating and compromising.” The elder almost seemed to brag.

“No.” Aurelius shook his head fast, “I meant to ask, was he like that with you too?”

“He is like that with all. I was and will never be an exception.”

“Tell me please. I know my name, but how did I come to be abandoned by him?”

Grindelwald sat, motioning the other to do so as well.

“It is a long story that starts with a fast friendship.”

“And how does it end.”

“Death.”

Aurelius, finding interest, sits.

“I will not tire you with the details of how I met your brother and all that was to follow-”

Truthfully, Aurelius was most interested.

“But what I think you want to hear most of all is how you, my boy, are a part in all of this.”

And this too was something he wished to hear. He only nodded once.

Aurelius sat up straight, proud, but Gellert could tell he did not believe the most recent persona he had created for this new name.

The boy wanted answers and revenge…

That was something Grindelwald was more than willing to give him.

“As you know, your brother and I were close.”

It was always unexplainable, the way Grindelwald’s mouth contorted as he spoke of Albus. It had not gone unnoticed by Aurelius whom still had trouble focusing on the eyes of another person.

“One day we were sat down, as though we were children, in front of your other older brother.”

“I have two brothers?” Aurelius perked up, “Do I have any other family?”

“You have an aunt and sister, both of whom I will speak of later.”

Realizing he was slouching, Aurelius straitened himself once again. He remembered all Grindelwald had told him about his family, how he should carry himself with pride as a Dumbledore. What words of respect when one member hurt him so. It was something Aurelius admired.

“Where did I end… Oh yes, your other older brother spoke his displeasure in all that was being done under that roof. Aberforth, that very brother, wished to see Albus and I separated.” And the elder seemed to contemplate this, realizing, “I suppose now I should thank him for allowing me to see the truth, but in the moment I was furious and young. I used a torture curse.” Grindelwald looked down, as though the words of torture had hurt him more than it did Aberforth, “How you, as an outsider to it all, must think of me. Albus seemed to think so too, though for me it had been a complete shift in tone from all he had spoken before. I did it for him, because of him. He resented your brother and sister to the highest degree, and so I also grew to as well. He even said so on occasion as he…” And seeming to realize he was losing his train of thought, Grindelwald pulled himself back to focus on the important details, “He called for me to stop. And as an obedient pawn, I did. He stepped to his brother’s side, an act of silent renunciation. Both your brother’s turned on me, his closest companion.”

And to Aurelius this seemed tragic, “I’m sorry.”

“It is not your burden to bare.” Grindelwald leaned forward, as always, disregarding social convention surrounding distance, “You, though you have the same aura, are not him.”

Still Aurelius felt the guilt and regret, a strange feeling that he was the one to blame.

“Aberforth sent a spell at me. I countered.”

“And Albus stood by? He did not attack you?”

“He did not attack me, no. But he did not try to stop your brother either, not as he had with me when we were in the same situation moments prior.” Grindelwald’s voice became almost pained, as though every word was becoming more and more difficult to speak, “I cannot say, not fully… still, you have to understand, he told me such dreams, he planned the very plans I now carry out. Yet in that moment, he turned his back to me… something he swore to never do.”

There was only stillness as both let it sink in.

The betrayal.

“You mentioned an aunt and sister?” Aurelius asked, hoping to break the tension that had formed.

“Yes.” Grindelwald nodded, “Your sister, Ariana, she wanted to help.”

“Help who? Was she also against you?”

“We will never know, for she had the same power you hold.”

“You mean-” But he could not say it, he had been told by an acolyte what he truly was. It was still too painful to hear.

“Yes.” Grindelwald nodded, “She lost herself. And Albus, he called out to her, asking her to stop in the same way he had me”

Aurelius noticed as Grindelwald once again seemed to lose himself in thought, in a memory.

“I had had a vision. And. With everything, I thought in that moment the vision had come to be and I was stupid… thinking I could stop it, that it was something worth stopping.” Grindelwald looked deep into eerily familiar eyes, “It happened quickly, so much so that I don’t think any of us knew what happened until we saw the result. Dear Ariana lie dead. And as I, still blind to your brother’s manipulation, tried to comfort him… he called me ‘crazy’, as though I had been the one-”

Aurelius could not look away, “You said this was a story of my role.”

This caused Grindelwald to smile, but it was not a smile of happiness. It was another emotion entirely, “I saw it…After finding this wand.” Grindelwald held it out to him, though Aurelias dare not take it, he hardly felt comfortable looking at it, “I went back after two long years, like a fool, to try and see if Albus had changed.”

And from all Aurelius could grasp, he had not.

“But who I found was not at all the man I once knew, not in the slightest. He did not notice as I watched him make his way from the market back to the home I used to frequent. Looking in through a window I saw your aunt looking after him, so sickly with all he had held inside. All his anger, fear and hatred …he imposed that upon you instead of facing it himself.”

Aurelius swallowed hard, almost not wishing to hear anymore.

“That is why you hold this power, the power everyone views as a curse. He gave it to you and then left you in the hands of his aunt, abandoning you. Not even wishing to search for you, to see if you were safe after you were thought dead. But I never stopped.”

The young man choked back a sob, “Thank you.”

“As I have said. Everything, all of this… it has been for you.”

Aurelius stiffened as he felt arms encircle him. He was so unused to any sort of comforting contact. He wondered if he would have been had his brother kept him in his presence. Would he have been better or worse off? Was it even something he should think about? What mattered was, he had it now, “I feel as though you could be my true brother.” The words flew from his heart to his lips in an instant.

Grindelwald stiffened, “And in ways I am.”

And as they pull away, the younger asked of the older, “Why though? Why have you helped the brother of such a horrible man?”

And the answer came all to easily, “The same as why you now seek to put a stop to him, answers and revenge.”


End file.
